it is something that i really love and i think i have done a very good job at it. >> next weñr traveled with him o a factory where he signed the 32nd executive order of his presidency and said hi to some supporters. >> we love you. >> thank you. >> dickerson: and this was the day to love his job and list his accomplishments. >> i am signing away. i have signed 29 new bills, a record not surpassed since the truman administration. >> dickerson: with no critics in sight the president returned the love. >> the future belongs to all of you, so with hope in ourselves and patriotism in our hearts, i say these words to you tonight on 100 days of devotion, hard work and love for our great country. together, we will make america strong again. --willñr make america wealthy again. we will make america prosper

again. we will make america proud again. we will make america safe again. and we will make america great again. thank you, god bless you! thank you! thank you! >> dickerson: and at the end of the day a private celebration with the staff on air force one. [ applause ] >> congratulations to everybody. we all deserve it. this was a tough go and it was really fun. and i just want to congratulate everybody and now we are going to do a great job for the american people. thank you. [ applause ]. >> dickerson: 100th day of the trump administration, i its higs and lows coming up on "face the nation". good morning and welcome to "face the nation". i am john dickerson. on this 101st day of the trump administration we begin with our wide-ranging interview of the president, taped yesterday in the roosevelt room at the white house. we asked him about the news that north korea had fired yet another test missile late last

week. how he has changed his thinking on china and what he has learned in his first 100 days in office. mr. president, you and the administration said to north korea, don't test a missile, they have tested a missile, is the pressure not working? >> well, i didn't say don't test test a missile. he will have to do what he has to do but he has to understand we won't be very happy and i will tell you a man i have gotten to like and respect, the president of china, president xi, i believe has been putting pressure on him also, but so far perhaps nothing has happened and perhaps it has. this was a small missile, this was not a big mills mills, this was, missile, this was not a nuclear test he was expected to do three days ago. we will see what happens. >> dickerson: you say not happy, what does that mean. >> i would not be happy if he does nuclear testily not be happy and i will tell you also i don't believe the president of the china, who is a very respected man will be happy either. >> dickerson: not happy mean military action?

>> i don't know, i mean we will see. >> dickerson: the chinese are allies, have been allies with north korea, how do you know if they are not using this to test you. >> you can't be sure of anything, but we developed a close relationship, i don't think they want to see a destabilized north korea, they don't want to see it and certainly don't want to see nuclear on -- from their neighbor. they haven't liked it for a long time, but we will have to see what happens. the relationship i have with china, it has been already acclaimed as being something very special, something very different than what we ever that had, but again, you know, we will find out whether or not president xi is able to affect change, i heap he is. >> dickerson: why do these missiles keep blowing up? >> well, i would rather not discuss it, but perhaps they are just not very good missiles but eventually he will have good missiles. >> dickerson: you don't want to discuss it because maybe we have something to do with it? >> i don't want to discuss it and i think yo you know they vey well you asked me many times

over the last couple of years about military, i said we shouldn't be announcing we are going into mosul, we shouldn't be announcing all of our moves, it is a chess game, i just don't want people to know what my thinking is, so eventually he will have a better delivery system and if that happens, we can't allow it to happen. >> dickerson: what do you make of the north korean leader? >> i really -- you know, have no comment on him. people are saying is he sane? i have no idea. i can tell you this, a lot of people don't like when i say it, but he was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father, when his father died. he is dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others, and at a very young age he was able to assume power a lot of people i am sure tried to take that power away. whether it was his uncle or anybody else and he was able to do it, so obviously he is a pretty smart cookie, but we have

a situation that we just cannot let -- we cannot let what has been going on for a long period of years continue, and frankly, this should have been done and taken care of by the obama administration, should have been taken care of by the bush administration. should have been taken care of by clinton. >> dickerson: let me ask you a question about the presidency. george w. bush said this about being president. he said, you think one thing going in and then the pressures of the job or the realities of the world are different than you thought. do you agree? >> i think i can agree with that. i love doing it. you know, i am thoroughly enjoying it. it is always a challenge like life itself is a challenge, but it is something that i really love and i think i have done a very good job at it. >> you said in an interview with reuters that you thought it would be easier. why? >> well, it is -- it is a tough job but i have had a lot of tough jobs. i have had things that were

tougher, although i will let you know that better at the end of eight years, perhaps at eight years, hopefully eight years but i will let you know later on. i think we have done very well with foreign policy. i think we have done very, very well with relationships with other leaders. i think we are doing great on trade deals. it is set and i think we are doing well. i mean our country is being out traded at every single point and we are losing tremendous amounts of money on trade. and i think actually i have been very consistent., you know, it is very funny when the fake media goes out, what we call the mainstream media, which i must say sometimes is you. >> me personally? >> i love your show. i call it de"face the nation", but, you know, your show is sometimes not exactly correct. but when they talk a about currency manipulation and i did say i would call china -- if they were a currency manipulator early in my tenure and then i get there, number one, they, as soon as i got elected they stopped, they are not going -- it is not going down any more,

their currency. >> dickerson: but that had been true before during the camp(ip >> no, not true to the september we are talking about, but much more important than that as to when. >> dickerson:. >> it did stop and i was talking about it all during the campaign and i would say that i was the one that got them to stop, but forget that. >> dickerson: you were the one that got them to stop -- >> during the campaign i talked about. >> dickerson: even if -- >> they were doing it before. i mean there was no question. i mean they were absolute currents manipulators before but somebody said you didn't call them a currency manipulator. we are talking about how he is working. i believe that president xi is working to try to resolve a very being problem for china also and that is north korea. can you imagine if i say, hey, by the way how are you doing with north korea? also we are going to announce you are a currency manipulator tomorrow. so the mainstream media never talks about that, they never say that and it is unfortunate. it is one of many things, john. >> dickerson: you are a negotiator, if you need something from somebody, you need china to help you with north korea, doesn't that 7 a message to china, we are not

going to bug you about human rights, about intellectual property, in a south china sea we won't put too much heat on you, aren't you breaking one of your own negotiating rules? >> , no frankly i think maybe north korea is more important than trade, trade is very important, but massive warfare with millions potentially, yicials of people being killed? that as we would say trumps trade,. >> dickerson:. >> you understand what i am saying and if i can use trade as method to get china -- because i happen to think that china does have reasonably good powers over, over north korea. now, maybe hot, you know, ultimate but pretty good powers. now, if china can help us with north korea and can solve that problem, that is worth making not as good a trade deal for the united states, excuse me, right? >> dickerson: what do you know now on day 100 you wish you knew on day one of the presidency? >> well, one of the things that i have learned is how dishonest

the media is, really, i have done things that are, i think very good, i have done, i have set great foundations with foreign leaders, we have, you know, nafta, as you know, i was going to terminate it but i got a very nice call from a man i like, the president of mexico, i got a very nice call there justin trudeau, the prime minister of canada, and they said please, would you rather than terminating nafta, i was all set to do it and i was going to do it today as we are sitting here i would have had to delay you, i was going to do it today and terminate nafta but they called up and said, would you negotiate? and i said, yes, i will negotiate. >> dickerson: that's all you have learned about the media you knew from the campaign about the media, you have said it all the time. >> but the media didn't cover it that way, the media said i didn't terminate nafta. look at my statements. if i am not able to renegotiate nafta i will terminate nafta i will make that question right now if i am not able to renegotiate nafta we

will terminate rçy+ @ >> dickerson: presidents have to learn how to adapt, everybody comes in the job and it is different than what they think, and certainly you learned something else besides the media is dishonest. >> no, no. it is one of my disappointments. >> dickerson: give me another thing you learned that you going to adapt and change because all presidents do. >> i think things tend to go slower than you could like them to go. >> dickerson: why? >> system, it is just a very, very bureaucratic system. i think the rules in congress and in particular the rules in the senate are unbelievably archaic and slow moving and in many cases unfair. in many cases you are forced to make deals that are not the deal you would make, you would make a much different kind of a deal. you are forced into situations you hate to be forced into. i also learned and this is very sad, because we have a country that we have to take care of. the democrats have been totally

obstructionist, chuck schumer turned out to be a bad leader,, he is a bad leader for the country and the democrats are extremely obstructionist, all they do is obstruct and delay, even our supreme court justice as you know who i think is going to be outstanding, justin gorsuch, i think that, justin gorsuch, i think it was disgrateful the way they handled that but i am waiting for bein g pep to be approved our chief trade negotiator we can't get these people through. they are obstructionist and you know who that is hurt something it is hurting the country. >> dickerson: let me ask you about healthcare. tucker carlson interviewed you about six weeks ago when you were in the .. middle of +&c agreed with him that the healthcare bill wasn't going to help your supporters, it was the rural supporters and they were going to get hurt -- >> the healthcare bill is going to help my supporters. >> dickerson: let me finish the question. >> i am not going to sign it, i am not going to do it. >> dickerson: that's why i wanted to ask you, you said tucker we will take care of our

people or not sign it. >> that's what i just said. >> tell me in the bill what you have been negotiating to get in that helps your supporters i am trying to get the details of how you will help. >> preexisting conditions are in the bill and i just watched another network than yours and saying, pre-existing is not covered, preexisting conditions are in the bill, and i mandated it, i says it has to be, we are going to have lower premiums, and before you start there, let me say something f obamacare is dead. obamacare right now all the insurance companies are fleeing. places like tennessee have already lost half of their state with the insurance companies and they are all going. obamacare, john, is dead. okay, because we are being -- we are being compared to obamacare. just -- obamacare doesn't work, no, no it is important i have to compare it. >> dickerson: no, no -- >> what i am saying about obamacare. >> dickerson: i am asking -- >> the premiums are too high, the deductibles are through the roof so you never get to use it but more importantly it is dead. >> dickerson: so in the bill

as it was analyzed there were two robs, one and you talked about this with congressman robert attar poll who brought you the example of the 64-year-old under obamacare the premiums -- has that been fixed. >> yes totally fixed. >> how? >> many, we made many changes to the bill, it is very different than it was three weeks ago. >> dickerson: people are wondering what kind of changes -- >> let me explain itxd to you. this bill is much different than it was a little while ago, okay? .. this bill has evolved and we didn't have a failure on the bill. it was reported like a failure. now the one thing i wouldn't have done again is put a timeline, that's why on the second iteration i didn't put a timeline but now we have preexisting conditions in the bill, we have -- we have set up a pool for the preexisting conditions so that the premiums can be allowed to fall. we are taking across all of the borders or the lines so that insurance companies can compete. >> dickerson: but that is not in this bill, the -- it is this in the third bill. >> it is in the second phase, it is called phase 1, phase 2 and

that is in the second phase which will get approved, which will quickly gets approved. let me just explain something. there will be such competition -- right now there is no competition. there will be such competition by insurance companies so that they can get healthcare and the people taken care of healthcare. the other thing we will have is groups, groups of can negotiate. what is going to happen is the competition is going to drive down the premiums, in myñr opinn much, much more than people understand. >> dickerson: so what you have just described is the bill you briefed had said you worried wouldn't help your people. >> no, there were things in the other bill, the first version, which were not as good. >> dickerson: okay. >> but when i watched some of the news reports, which are so unfair, and they say, we don't cover preexisting conditions, we covered it beautifully. >> dickerson: although -- >> i will tell you who doesn't cover preexisting conditions, obamacare, you know why? because it is dead dead, it is not going to be here. >> dickerson: one of the

preexisting was optional for the states. >> sure, and in one of the fixes and they are changing it. >> dickerson: permanent -- >> >> this is a development so you are going to say preexisting for everybody -- >> john, this has evolved over a period of three or four weeks, we really have a good bill, i think they could have voted on friday, i said just relax, don't worry about this phony 100 day thing, just relax and take it easy and take your time, get thr >> dickerson: just to -- >> most importantly, we are going to drive down premiums. we are going to drive down deductibles because right now deduct tbles are who so high unless you are going to die, a long hard death you never can get to use your healthcare because the deductibles are so high. >> dickerson: so what i hear you saying is pre-existing is in there for everybody? >> pre-existing is going to be in there and will also, it is going also going to create pools and pools will take care of -- >> dickerson: it is not left up to the states, everybody gets preexisting? >> no, but the states will have

a lot to do with it because we ultimately want to get it back down to the states. >> dickerson: it is a guarantee? >> look if you hurt your knee, honestly i would rather have the federal government focused on north korea, focused on other things than your knee. okay? or than your back as important as your back is. i would much rather see the federal government focused on other things, bigger things. now, the state is going to be in a much better position to take care, because it is smaller,. >> dickerson: people out there with preexisting conditions they are worried,' m are they going o have the guarantee of coverage if they have a preexisting condition or in a state where the governor decides that is not part of to the healthcare 0 are the price is going to go up, that's the worry that the american medical association that will make care unaffordable for people. >> forget about unaffordable, what is unaffordable is obamacare. >> dickerson: i am not hearing you say there is not a guarantee of preexisting conditions. >> we actually have a clause that guarantees it. >> dickerson: okay, excellent. let me ask you about your tax plan.

>> go ahead. >> dickerson: tax plan came out this week, it has got big deficit numbers you say that will be made up by growth. >> well not only growth, it will be made up by better trade deals. it is going to be made up by many different reciprocal tax. as an example, we have countries where if we make a product and we send it to that country, they charged us 100 percent tax if they make the same product and send it to us, we charge them nothing. do you think that is smart? it is not. we are going to come up with reciprocal taxes and lots of other things on those countries but i view that more on trade. we are also going to fix all of our trade deals. we are going to have a very wealthy man country again. >> dickerson: let me ask you this, mr. president. congress may not go along with -- they are going to try to find some spending -- let me ask you about medicare. they will want congress to make up on the spending side to change medicare. will you allow that? >> you won't have to do it. >> dickerson: will you allow it? >> you won't have to do it. >> dickerson: mr. president,

president trump doesn't want them to do that -- >> i would prefer them not to do that, that's right. >> dickerson: having covered you on the campaign it sounds like you are leaving the door open, on the campaign you said i am the guy not going to touch medicare. >> then let me be clear i won't touch it because i said it, now waste fraud and abuse i am going to touch. if there is something in medicare that has been abusedly touch that. there are certain things as you know that have been absolutely abused, there are certain provisions in the medicare that are horrible and abusive and there has been terrible things happening. so that kind of sufficiently absolutelyé@ touch. but the concept of medicare i am not touching. >> dickerson: for me if i have it now or in the future it is not getting touched. >> waste, fraud and abuse. and if there are things within medicare that are being abused, i will touch that also. >> dickerson: other than that, it is -- >> that's what i it is but heres what we are going to do, we are going to grow, the numbers just came out for obama's last year, 1.6 gdp, that means nothing. that is like one percent gdp, so

i have gotten to know as you know and i really get along with a lot of the countries so i talked to the heads of countries, how are you doing? not well, not well, why? gdp is eight percent, gdp is nine percent. we are doing poorly. gdp -- our gdp is like one percent. >> dickerson: when we come back, president trump on the progress ofs aring his tax returns and whether he really believed russia tried too med until the last election. >> you notice now they are using, everybodyxdgvn is using e word fake news, where did you hear it first, folks? >>

>> dickerson: and we are back with more of our interview with president trump. this week, his treasury secretary was asked a familiar question when he unveiled the president's tax plan. >> will the president release his tax returns so that -- >> the president has no intention, the president has released plenty of information and i think has given more financial disclosure than

anybody else. >> dickerson: we ask the president about that. >> let me ask you about your tax returns, when your treasury secretary was asked about whether you are going to release them, secretary mnuchin says he has no intention. >> well i never spoke to him about it, honestly he never asked me about it, i said number one, i am under audit, right now i am under audit, after the audit is complete, it is a routine audit but i have a very big tax return you have seen the pictures, my tax return is probably higher than that from the floor, when you look at other people's tax return, even other wealthy people their tax return is this thick, my tax return is this high, i just want to make sure -- >> i have a routine audit and i think it is a very unfair thing because i have been under audit almost like since i became famous. okay? not just political, i mean, i have been under audit i bet you 12 or 13 or 14 years naah row. now i have friends that are wealthy people and never been audited and i think it is very unfair. >> dickerson: you first said that you were under audit and

was going to wait until that was done about 14 months ago. that seems like a long time. when do you think that is going to happen? >> it could happen soon. >> dickerson: give me a sense. >> i think it is pretty routine to be honest with you, but they don't make a, then we will make a decision. >> dickerson: i remember congress said a condition for tax reform was releasing your tax returns. >> i don't know who did that. i don't care who did that. these are the people, the great obstructionists. >> dickerson: you are not -- >> look where the democrats have ended up, john, they had everything going. now they don't have the presidency. they don't have the house. they don't have the senate. and schumer is going around making a fool out of himself. >> dickerson: and in a moment why president trump is still skeptical of reports that russia tried to influence the american election. >>xd